magid

In 1998, my costume was a Purim math teacher, and I had a quiz to hand out. I don't think anyone actually answered any of the questions, but I had a fun time putting it together, pulling all the numbers right from the megillah (and later carefully formatted in two columns to fit on one side of a standard sheet of paper).

There are 7 chamberlains. Two are caught plotting against the king and are beheaded. How many chamberlains are left?
There are 180 days of feasting for princes, and 7 days of feasting for the inhabitants of Shushan. If a prince is willing to go slumming, how many days of feasting can he have?
Choose A, B, C, or D. Which are not princes of Paras and Madai?
I. Shetar and Tarshish
II. Kars hena and Admata
III. Meres and Marsena
IV. Karkas and Avagta
A. I only
B. IV only
C. I and II
D. II, III, and IV
The chapters of the book of Esther have the following number of verses: 22, 23, 15, 17, 14, 14, 10, 17, 32, and 3.
a. How many verses are in the book of Esther?
b. Find the mean, median, mode, and range.
c. Make a box-and-whisker plot of the data.
a. The king rules 127 provinces. There are 7 princes of two provinces (Paras and Madai). Use a proportion to find the number of princes in all 127 provinces. Round your answer to the nearest whole prince.
b. Assume all the princes come to the 180 days of the king's drink-fest. If each one drinks 8 beers each night, how many six-packs should be bought for the whole drink-fest?
c. If a 6-pack of premium beer costs $5.75, what will the king's expenditure for beer for the whole drink-fest be?
a. Suppose each province and the capital sent a candidate for queen to the palace. How many candidates were there?
b. Each candidate got 7 maids. H ow many maids were there total?
c. Each candidate had 6 months of bathing in myrrh. How many days is this for each candidate? total?
The king offered Esther up to 1/2 his kingdom. He ruled 127 provinces. How many provinces could she have ruled? Round your answer to the nearest whole province.
a. The king's gold scepter is approximated by a cylinder 18 in. high and 1 in. in diameter. What is the volume of the scepter in cubic inches?
b. Rewrite the volume in cubic feet.
c. A cubic foot of water weighs about 60 lb. How much would the scepter weigh if it were made of water?
d. The specific gravity of gold is about 19.3. Use your answer from part (c) to find the approximate weight of the gold scepter.
e. Suppose gold costs $350/oz. How much would it cost to replace the scepter?
Extra credit: How likely is it that the king is able to lift his scepter after 180 days of drinking? Show your work.
a. On the first day of fighting, the Jews of Shushan killed 500 men and the Jews in the provinces killed 75,000 men. How many men were slain on the first day?
b. In Shushan there was fighting on the second day, and 300 men were killed. How many men were killed in all?
c. Suppose each male Jew between 20 and 60 years old killed one Persian on the first day. If each Jew had one wife and 5 kids, about how many Jews lived in Persia?